| Olin's three degree programs—electrical and computer engineering, mechanical engineering and engineering— have been accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET, the recognized accreditor of college and university programs in applied science, computing, engineering, and technology. ABET accreditation demonstrates a program's commitment to providing its students with a quality education. Congratulations to everyone who made this goal a priority and a possibility!
For the past several years, Olin College has used the Olin Community on Blackboard for posting items such as student jobs, Olin policies, forms and other items of interest. We have been working over the last few months to transition these items over to the Portal. IT, in conjunction with the Portal Working Group, would like to invite you to sign-on to the Portal for all your on campus needs. The Portal/PhoenixNet will provide you with access to the following:
Resource Links
Campus events
Academic information
Class lists, course schedules and grade inputing
Benefit information and other resources
Student Employment information
What does this mean for Blackboard?
This means that the Olin Community on Blackboard will no longer be accessible. Blackboard will continue to serve Olin as means to access course materials only.
How do I access the Portal?
To login into PhoenixNet, point your browser to https://my.olin.edu and enter your network credentials. Please contact helpdesk@olin.edu if you have difficulty accessing PhoenixNet.
I have feedback to give. Where do I send it?
As always, your feedback is always welcome at myolin@olin.edu .
And remember: It's on the Portal…
Welcome back students! Please check out all listed student employment opportunities on PhoenixNet. You can access the student employment page via the Campus Life tab, a Student Employment link is posted in the left hand column of this tab.
Who: NASA Astronaut Suni Williams
What: An afternoon discussion with Suni Williams
When: Monday, September 10, 2007 at 4:00 p.m.
Where: Sorenson Center, Babson College
This event is free and open to the Needham/Wellesley community as well. Parking is available in Babson's Nichols and Trim parking lots. For more information on Suni Williams visit the NASA website and to learn more about this event, please click here.
On September 4 and 7, Boston Cares will be on campus to recruit Olin students for its first Campus Day of Service, an event designed to
engage local college and university students in volunteer service projects at agencies across Boston. The event will take place on
Saturday, September 15 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., with a post-service celebration from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Click here for more information.
We know Olin students and alumni are doing all kinds of cool things from arctic explorations, entering contests, launching businesses, and running conferences to traveling, attending graduate research programs, and working for cool companies, so we'd like to encourage each and every one of you to share your stories with us. Send an email to communication@olin.edu and if possible include a photo with a brief description of what it is you're up to and what the picture depicts. We can always follow up with questions. Thanks for helping us tell the Olin story!
New updated dining options for the 2007-2008 school year have been released by Dining Services. Please be advised that it is advantageous to use the Olin Dollars because of the Bonus Dollars that you will receive, and please feel free to take advantage of the Take Out services that they provide.
The American Liver Foundation Football Walk for Liver Wellness is coming up on Sunday, September 30. Registration begins at 9:00 a.m. and the walk starts at 10:15 a.m. The walk follows a five-mile course along the beautiful South Boston waterfront, with refreshments, entertainment, and shorter routes also available.
If you don't already know, Tiana's mom, Marlene Veldwisch, has liver disease, and she and Tiana are co-captaining a walk team this year – the Hepa-Titans. They are looking to have a large team of walkers and would love support from the Olin Community! Please let Tiana know if you are interested in joining the team as a walker or would like to make a donation to our team. In addition, Marlene has been asked by the Foundation to be one of the speakers at the start of the walk!
The Saatchi & Saatchi Award for World Changing Ideas exists to recognize brilliant thinking, to bring it to the world's attention and to reward the most outstanding innovation with a prize worth $100,000. Ideas may be scientific, linguistic, artistic and/or technological. They may be hi-tech, lo-tech or no-tech and could be in prototype, the finished thing or merely a compelling concept. Previous finalists have ranged from a tornado early-warning system, self-adjusting spectacles, a sonar system that enables the visually-impaired to ‘see' with their ears, a compound that can replicate the sensitivity of human skin, a new kind of aeroplane, a storage system for the world's languages, viable electric lighting for the developing world, and near-instant buildings for disaster relief.
Submissions from innovators around the world are welcome. Click here to learn more. The deadline for submissions is Friday, September 28.
Babson College has joined forces with Olin and Wellesley Colleges to sponsor the weekday cross-registration shuttle operated by JFK Transportation. The Olin stop has changed from the Olin Center traffic circle to the east end of East Hall near the Public Safety substation. The first run begins at the Wellesley Campus Center at 7:40 a.m., arrives at the Wellesley Chapel at 7:42, arrives at Olin's East Hall at 7:52, arrives at the Babson Campus Center at 7:55, arrives at the Wellesley Chapel again at 8:05, and returns to the Wellesley Campus Center at 8:07. The next run begins at 8:10 and follows the same 27 minute schedule. There is a lunch break in the schedule from 12:07 to 12:40 p.m. The last run of the day returns to the Wellesley Campus Center at 6:37 p.m. A Wellesley, Olin or Babson ID card is required. This amends the description of the Wellesley-Olin Shuttle on page 88 of the Student Handbook 2007-08.
Thanks to Dean Dennis Hanno at Babson College, Olin students are eligible to ride the new weekend shuttle to the Woodland T stop, Quincy Market, Downtown Crossing, the Museum of Fine Arts, and Newbury Street. The shuttle departs for these locations on Fridays at 12 noon, 2:30 p.m., 5 p.m., and 7:30 p.m. It departs at 10 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. for Tremont/Stuart Street. It picks-up at Tremont/Stuart Street at 1:30 a.m. and 2:30 a.m., with a final return to Babson at 3 a.m. The Saturday schedule is the same except the last run returns to Babson at 2 a.m. On Sundays, an abbreviated schedule goes to Woodland T station and downtown Wellesley; it departs Babson at 12 noon, 1 p.m., 2 p.m., 3 p.m., and 4 p.m.
The Office of Parent and Alumni Relations wants to welcome a new generation of parents to Olin's e-newsletter! Enjoy your first edition of the Link!
P'11 reading recommendation: While it's not Olin specific, you may find Robin Raskin's Parents' Guide to College Life to be a helpful resource to help you with your child's transition to college. Dean, Rod Crafts is quoted on pages 98 and 273!
Click here to view an electronic copy of the 2007-2008 Parent Handbook. P'08s-P'10s will receive hard copies via US mail in the next couple of weeks.
The Office of Parent and Alumni Relations is happy to report that seven sizzling send-offs were organized this past summer to help welcome incoming students and their families to the Olin Community! The purpose of these gatherings is to introduce incoming students and parents to other members of the Olin Community in their area. Parent hosts generously donated their time, money and in most cases home to host these informal events in locations such as NoCA, SoCA, CO, IL, NY, VA (click on the state abbreviations to see photos of the event). Two alumni of '06
and a current student also teamed up to host a send-off in MA.
Compared to last year's 110, a total of 139 incoming students, current students, alumni and family members were able to participate in these great events. CA attendees were thrilled to see former Olin VP for External Relations and Enrollment, Duncan Murdoch and his wife Mary and once again connections and friendships were made before students even arrive on campus.
"Alumni and current students had a great time catching up," one host noted while another commented, "small but very nice... the new students are very excited to be heading off to Olin in a few weeks. They were just beaming!"
It was amazing to see the number of hands that went up at Parent Orientation when asked how many attended a send-off and found it to be a positive experience. Many thanks to all those who participated amongst their busy summer schedules! We greatly appreciate our dedicated PAB event committee coordinator Marlene Veldwisch (P'08) and our generous hosts: the Boutelle ('09), Fahrenbach ('10), Powers ('10), Martin ('10), Murphy ('09), Veldwisch ('08), Wolpert ('10) families and Jeff Satwicz and Erin McCusker (both '06).
Please visit the Parent Volunteer Submission Form if you are interested in hosting a Send-off Party next summer. Another inquiry will be sent at the end of the spring semester.
Area receptions bring together Olin alumni, parents, corporate partners and friends of the college with the purpose of meeting with President Miller as well as participating Trustees and get an update on the college.
October 10 at Olin College, Needham Massachusetts, hosted by Trustee Robert McBurney
October 18 at Luce Restaurant, 252 Route 100 in Somers, NY hosted by Trustee Carla Gude
November 19 at the home of Trustee Scott Gibson in Portland, OR
A reminder to all parents that the various parent email lists can be found in the Get Connected doc: http://www.olin.edu/parents/docs/GetConnected_ParentRelations.pdf
On July 1 in Honolulu, HI Cheryl Inouye and DJ Danner exchanged wedding vows. Cheryl was delighted that some of her Olin friends could make it to Waikiki to celebrate with them. The newlyweds have since moved back to the Boston area.
This is a reminder to all alumni and the greater Olin Community of the various alumni aliases: alumni-2006@lists.olin.edu contains only graduates in the Class of 2006, subsequently, alumni-2007@lists.olin.edu contains the graduates in the Class of 2007. The classof2006@olin.edu or classof2007@olin.edu address can still be used by those with the firstname.lastname@olin.edu email address but it will forward to the alumni-2006@lists.olin.edu lists, etc. If you wish to reach all Olin alumni use alumni-all@lists.olin.edu.
Walker consists of three divisions, the Walker School in Needham, Beacon High School in Watertown and the Walker Partnership. Serving the entire eastern portion of Massachusetts from the New Hampshire border to Martha's Vineyard, the Walker School takes in kids that have failed at other institutions. Their goal is not to have the kids stay at Walker, but rather to return them to the communities from which they come. Many of the non-residential students are bussed to Walker on a daily basis from their homes, coming from many communities. In addition to its direct services to children and families they also provide professional development and support services to mental health professionals.
They are currently undertaking a couple of IT initiatives, their IT department consists of two people and is on a very tight budget. This presents some opportunities for Olin students to get involved. Specifically, they are
seeking help in development of a Microsoft SharePoint server and systems customized to their needs. The system will manage all student/staff records, have security that will comply with HIPPA, allow off campus access from affiliate organizations, tie the Walker School in Needham and Beacon High School in Watertown record keeping into one cohesive system.
The other high priority project for Walker would be the further development of the Walker website. One project is a master calendar that could serve disparate audiences. The calendar data would include, school terms and holidays, major fund-raising events, board events, staff trainings, clinical meetings, etc. One idea that we had, was a calendar with a check list where a user could select the event types that they wish to view. We are also interested in adding some multimedia content to the site such as podcasts of some of our professional development seminars, or the Walker video. Additional information can be found here, along with contact information for the appropriate folks at Walker.
Here are a few things coming up…don't miss out! To learn more about each of these activities, please click here.
Babson/Olin Jazz Ensemble
Babson/Olin Chamber Ensemble
Ceramics Classes
Acting Skills for Success in Business I
B&W Photo Workshop
Malcolm Stearns Film Society
As part of its Summer of Content program, the One Laptop Per Child organization is seeking mentors, interns and volunteers. The Summer of Content is a program that matches interns with volunteer mentors from local free culture and open content organizations to complete a paid, full-time project in creating, promoting, or otherwise supporting open content and free culture. There is a special emphasis on recruiting interns and mentors from the developing world, as well as the creation and support of free culture and open-content projects in local
(non-English) languages and in formats not traditionally considered to be "content" (translations, addressing accessibility issues, running classes, etc.). One particular subset of projects deals with documentation and outreach for technological projects and products - getting teams working on open source engineering projects to collaborate with each other online, making it easy for them to document and share their work. Olin alumna, Mel Chua is working with the OLPC and knows that Olin students and faculty would make awesome mentors, interns and/or volunteers both for the Summer of Content program and for the OLPC project in general. If you are interested in learning more about either, please email Mel at mallory.chua@alumni.olin.edu or mel@laptop.org.
On Monday, September 17, Rashid Abbasher will join Olin as a Programmer Analyst. His office location will be OC156 and he can be reached at extension 2470.
On Thursday, August 30, Eric Prechtl joined Olin as an Adjunct Professor of Mechanical Engineering. His office location is OC333.
On Monday, August 27, Stephanie Rizzitano joined Olin as Coordinator of Campus Services. Her office can be located at CC332c and she can be reached at extension 2313.
The Facilities Department would like to extend a thanks to the Community for helping to drive down energy costs and consumption during FY07! Energy is the largest expense in the facilities budget, so they rely heavily on each member of the Community to conserve energy by using natural light and temperature adjustments in the space they use. A recent annual review revealed that consumption and costs were significantly reduced and facilities hopes to see the trend continue! To view a graphical representation of this information, please click here.
For the fourth consecutive year the Princeton Review has included Olin College in its guide titled "The Best 366 Colleges." Noted for its
innovative, exceptional, project-based curriculum, Olin also appeared on several of the guides ranking lists including
Lots of Race/Class Interaction (#3), Town-Gown Relations are Great (#3), Dorms Like Palaces (#6), Best Campus Food (#7), Best Quality of Life (#10), Best Career/Job Placement Services (#12), and Professors Make Themselves Accessible (#15), among others. To read more, please click here.
"Students Build Campuses in Google Earth," The Chronicle of Higher Education, August 30, 2007
"Olin Students Gain Real-World Experience," Boston.com, August 16, 2007
In the last issue we asked "Do you know which two SCOPE teams have recently received coverage in The Boston Globe?" Katherine Elliot was the first to respond correctly saying the FW Olin/Alzheimer's and DARPA teams.
Trivia buffs, do you know.....
Q: Which member of the class of 2011 hiked the Appalachian Trail during his deferred year?
A: First person to respond to Alyson Goodrow with the correct answer receives a prize.
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